I have never seen a mountain jump into the sea. I also can’t imagine that such an event would go unnoticed, especially given the ensuing tsunami it would cause. But this causes a problem for faith.

In Mark 11, Jesus tells the disciples that if they believe and do not doubt, they can command mountains to throw themselves into the sea. The problem is that if this has never happened, either Jesus was wrong or people have never prayed with any faith.

But what if there’s a different way? What Jesus says turns on the ‘therefore’ that follows the word picture. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).

The word ‘therefore’ suggests that the mountain picture operates like a parable - a story that makes a point. Mountains are the most ancient and immovable objects. When Moses wanted to describe the eternity of God, he used mountains as the most ancient comparator he knew to show that God is even more everlasting (Psalm 90:2).

Could it be therefore that Jesus was never really interested in us praying for mountains? What if Jesus really wanted us to look at the most ancient and immovable problems in front of us and believe that God can and will throw them into the proverbial sea.

From 7 March, we begin a month of 24/7 prayer at a time when we face some mountains. We live in a culture that is proudly moving further from God, we all have people in our world stuck in unbelief, many in our city are bound up in addiction, violence, sickness, and poverty.

But what if we prayed like we meant it? Can I ask you to jump into this month of prayer. Let’s use this moment to come together. To cry out to the one who is able and command some mountains to throw themselves into the sea.

Much love,
Simon

This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>

Prayer that Moves Mountains